some dnd backstory ideas that give your character a reason to leave home that isn’t “everyone in my family died.” (just to say: i have nothing against those backstories (i use them a lot), but its fun to mix it up!)
family/friends/personal
- someone close to you is sick. you need to adventure to find a cure
- someone stole something important from you and you need to find it
- you’ve received a message from a long lost relative and are trying to find them
- someone that you love has been kidnapped (maybe you have to earn money to pay a ransom or complete some deed…)
- adventuring runs in the family! everyone is expected to complete one quest in their lives
- your family/culture sends people out to complete certain tasks when they reach a certain age as a rite of passage
- another player’s character saved you in the past so you feel indebted to them and travel with them, protecting/aiding them
- there’s a magical drought in your hometown and you have to fix it
- your hometown doesn’t have a lot of jobs so you have to travel and send money back home
- some childhood friends and you made a “scavenger hunt” where you try and complete a checklist of certain tasks (ie. defeat a barbarian in hand to hand combat, steal x amount of gold, slay a dragon, etc) in an allotted amount of time
quests/jobs
- a god/patron has sent you on a quest to do something for them
- you’ve been hired by someone to complete a task (and you get sucked into the big adventure along the way)
- you’re on a quest for knowledge. maybe it’s to learn the best ways of fighting, maybe it’s something more academic related
- your priest received a vision from your god and they sent you on a quest
- you’re writing a book about the world and different cultures and you need first hand experience
- you’ve found every map you’ve come across is shitty, so you decide to become a cartographer and make your own
- you’re a detective who helps solve crimes and need to travel to solve a particular case
- you’re a collector of a certain object and travel across the land to find it
- you’re apart of an adventuring academy and have to complete a quest to graduate
- you’re an artisan and you travel with your wares, trying to sell them. alternatively, you’re trying to spread word of your business and gain new business partners
- you worked at a tavern your whole life where an old bard would sing songs of their adventuring party and that inspired you to go and do some adventuring of your own
feel free to add some of your own!